Just not grabbing me.

In a word: clunky.

I have a fairly high tolerance for purple prose but this reads like it was fed through a thesaurus. And the way characters’ pronouns were shoehorned into narration felt very odd; I’ve seen other reviewers compare it to a HUD. I’m not a fan. On a similar note, at one point a character asks “Show, not tell. Do you imagine that the two are really so different?” Yes I do. Telling instead of showing fosters detachment and makes it hard for me to invest in the characters and the story, plus it makes me feel a little spoken down to, like I’m not trusted to pick up on context clues or interpret the text myself.

The writing in general feels unconfident – there were three or four instances of the narrator pondering where to begin before actually beginning, which was just irritating and not a good start to the novel. I gave up at the first interlude.

I’d plough on if it were shorter. I like the sound of some of the concepts this novel plays with so I may give it another go at some point, but for now it’s a DNF because I’m just not in the mood to work my way through this right now. 

It’s alright. I’ll probably revisit it at some point, but I don’t really have the energy for it right now. I don’t get the sense that there’s some uniting theory or conclusion being set up. It’s just a collection of brief essays connected by theme but not really building upon one another, and for the most part they’re just plot synopses for short stories I haven’t read. The writing is accessible and the concepts explored are interesting (though they’re not Wilk’s concepts, so I’m not sure I can give her too much credit). There’s just not enough substance to keep me hooked. 

In these brief essays, Preciado idly comments on (then-)current events or half-remembers a Wikipedia article he read. I was drawn in by the Uranus motif and the idea of reclaiming/reinventing uranism, but he doesn’t really do anything with the concept beyond mentioning it. His observations are mostly obvious. Sometimes he’ll say something that might be interesting but his point is obscured by buzzwords and neologisms.

I stopped properly reading about a third of the way through, but I did skim the rest. I don’t like giving up on books but honestly? This was a phenomenal waste of time.

The writing is sardonic and meandering – that’ll take some getting used to. And there’s a lot that’s making me kind of uncomfortable, from cringey one-note characters to objectionable politics. Maybe this improves as the book goes on, but I’m just not in the mood right now.

I might come back to it eventually. We’ll see.

Dry. Overly academic. Will revisit at some point, though.

I got halfway through this book and I no longer feel the need to force myself to keep reading. I don’t find the characters compelling except maybe Harrowhark, but I’m getting tired of her constantly wandering off without explanation. There are far too many characters and factions introduced all at once, fights happen for seemingly no reason, and on the whole the story comes across as an ensemble of OCs with “plot” thrown in as an afterthought. Gideon’s behaviour doesn’t fit with her backstory so every time she does anything I’m like ?? why are you like this?

The setting is interesting in theory (sci-fi + gothic is very much my style) but the execution is limited. The lack of descriptive prose makes it hard to visualise, well, anything. It’s dialogue-heavy, and the dialogue is kind of cringey.

I’d hoped it was just a rough start but at the 50% mark I’ve finally decided to call it a day. I may revisit it at some point but for now I need to move on to something else.

I’ve been meaning to read Nietzsche for a while. My original plan was to start with Ecce Homo then to go back and read his major works in chronological order. I feel like I’m not getting anything out of Ecce Homo without context and prior familiarity, though, so I am reconsidering my approach. When I attempt to tackle Nietzsche again, I think I might start with Thus Spoke Zarathustra instead. 

Got a third of the way into the book and I'm just not interested. I don't really care for the characters, the world, or the plot, and the writing is dense and tough to get through.

I may return to it at some point but for now I'm moving on to something else.